This week for extra reading I read another part of the Little Mermaid story. It made me curious how they came about.
While reading this Wiki page, I learned that the idea of the mermaid started thousands of years ago. Another thing that I learned was that Christopher Columbus reported mermaids during his explorations, but it is thought that they were inspired by manatees or other animals. I thought it was interesting to read that there are still mermaid sightings being reported today. A man that I work with watched the Discovery Channel documentary on mermaids when it came out and swore that it was real.
My Wiki search lead me to this page because this was the original "mermaid". It is said that she accidentally killed her lover and was ashamed so she turned herself into part fish. It's always different to read stories from different cultures. I believe this one is Arabic and is a goddess of fertility.
My search then lead me to the collection of One Thousand and One Nights. The story of Atargatis is held in this storybook collection. It has a large selection of stories and folk tales from the Islamic Golden Age. Like many storybooks from the past, the stories have been collected over many centuries by many different authors.
My final page was about Aleppo which is a city in Syria. While reading about One Thousand and One Nights it talked about Aladdin, which is one of the most popular stories in the collection. Aladdin was inspired by the town Aleppo. It was once the largest city in Syria and is now thought to be the second largest. It's one of the oldest ancient cities that is still being inhabited today. From the pictures it looks like a beautiful city and if I am ever able to travel to the middle east, I might have to add it to my travel ventures.
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